The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1887-01-18

kneel down, and while on his knees
was baptized with gage of booze; Ii. e.
a quart of drink, which was poured
over his head dy one of the chiefs. Il
do. by virtue of this sovereign liquor,
install the in the Roage," said the chief,
'and make the a free denizen of our
ragged regiment. Henceforth, it shall
be lawful for the to cant, only observ-
ing these rules: First, that thou art
not to wander up and down all coun
tries, but to keep to that quarter that
is allotted thee; and secondly, thou
art to give way to any of US that have
borne all the offices of the wallet be-
fore; and, upon holding up finger,
to avoid any town or country village,
thou seest we are foraging for Wet
uals for our army that marches along
with us. Observing these two rules.
we take the under our protection, and
constitute the a brother of our numer-
Gus society"
The leader having ended his ora
ton, Nevison rose up, and was con
graduated by the company, who, in
the word of the historian, hung about
him like so many dogs about a bear,
making such a hideous noise that
their chief was obliged to command
silence while he addressed William
again, as follows" Now that thou
art entered into our fraternity, thou
must not scruple to act any villanies,
whether it be to cut purse, steal a
cloak-bag or portmanteau, coacey all
manner of things, whether they be
chickens, sucking-pi ducks, geese,
or hens; or steal a shirt from the
hedge; for he that will be queer core
Il. C. a professed rogue) must observe
these rules"-quite unnecessary adj
vice to have given William, one would
think. If he but told them who he
was. And because thou art but
novice in begging" continued the
chief. and understandest not the
mysteries Of the canting language,
thou shall have a wife to be thy com
panion, from whom thou mayest re
ceive instruction" Thereupon the
chief singled out, as wife for New
son, a girl Of about seventeen years
Of age, the idea tickled William i'm
mensely, and the two We're married
the patrjco gypsy priest, after the fol
lowing simple manner. They took a
hen, and having cut off its head, laid
the dead body on the ground, Nevi-
son being placed on one side Of it
and his bride on the other. This done
the patrico, standing by, with a loud
voice, babe them live together till
death did them part Then the
happy pair shook hands and kissed
one another, and the solemn cere-
mony being over, every one gave way
to JOY. Night approaching, and all
the money spent, the crowd Of
vagabonds made for a barn not far
off, where, after broaching barrel of
beer, they went to sleep. Let the
reader now compare this incident of
Nevison among the canting beggars
with that recorded by Harrison Aims
worth of his hero Dick Turpin, in
" lockwood" (book iii, chap. 81,
I which resembles it so closely, that
we are bound to consider the authors
idea to have been taken from Nevi-
sons life.
We left Nevison in the barn When
all the other rogues were asleep, he
quietly slipped out, took a horse, and
posted directly away But, coming
! to London, he found there was too
much noise about him to permit of
his ta1rying there; so he returned
to the country, and fell into his old
pranks again. But his crimes soon
became so notorious that at last a re-
ward was offered to any one who
would apprehend him, This induced
many men to waylay him, especially
two brothers, named Fletcher, one of
whom our highwayman shot dead.
He was ultimately taken by Capt.
Hardcastle, for paltry public house
robbery at Milford, near York, and
sent to York jail, where on the 18th
March, 1854, he was tried, convicted,
and finally executed on a gallows near
AIicklegate Bar, aged forty-fve.
In a short account of this remarka-
BILE highwayman, given in the Weekly
/ Chronicle of March 9TH, 1885, the fol
lowing passage occurs: The main
point of interest about the man will
/ lam Nevison) nova days is that he
was in reality the person who per
formed the feat additionally attribu-
ted to Dick Turpin; that, namely, of
riding from London to York in one
day The date cannot be precisely
fixed; but it was probably in the sum
mer of 1915. He had committed a
robbery in London, just before dawn,
and was recognised. He made for
the North at once. By sunset-say
fifteen hours later-he entered York,
having ridden the one mare two
hundred measured miles. There he
was captured and brought to trial,
when it was proved that he had been
on the bowling green at York on the
evening of the same day that the rob
J l,,,,,- I,,,l l,oo,, aO,,,,,,,4+a1 London.